Advocacy Program

Whitewater Ontario is deeply concerned about the erosion of the rights of paddlers and other users of the province's waterways. Whitewater Ontario is and has been involved in river access and preservation through such projects as the Minden Wild Water Preserve on the Gull River, negotiating with land owners to provide access to the Crowe Bridge play spot, and keeping involved in the struggle over the Petawawa hydroelectric project.

If you are interested in helping please contact Whitewater Ontario at
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As a member of the regulatory community involved with the Big Eddy project, we are providing you - and the proponent - a short summary of our concerns. We are hopeful that these concerns will be noted, and the suggested corrective actions implemented and reflected in the final version of the ER as the process moves forward.

The draft Environmental Report (ER), recently made available via Xeneca Power Development Ltd, contains substantial amounts of information which our organizations consider as misleading, misrepresentative, unsubstantiated or simply inaccurate. In addition, our organizations share a grave concern that the proposed compensatory measures fail to protect the recreational paddling community’s usage of the Petawawa River at Railroad Rapids (Big Eddy).

In fact, the Environmental Report states clearly on Page 148: "Development of the dam will present a barrier to navigation and conflict with the traditional lifeways of communities."

On the following pages, we have indicated the relevant section and page from the draft Environmental Report along with a description of our concern. We ask that you consider our concerns when evaluating this document. In many cases, suggested corrective actions have been included.

As indicated in previous correspondence, our organizations remain firmly opposed to this project. It represents a significant loss to the communities affected and the draft Environmental Report provides little evidence of suitable compensatory measures.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at your earliest convenience and we would be happy to discuss with you